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Austin Andre

English 102

Dr. Wynne

17 March 2017

On the current state of Feminist Doctrine

Feminism is the advocacy of womans rights based on sexual equality. For generations

woman, have strived for social and bodily autonomy, and it is said often that the western world

has made strides in providing the rights they have fought for so many years. Over that past

decade or so however there has been numerous counter-culture movements, that claim that the

direction of Modern feminism is more damaging to woman and girls than helpful and in

general needs to be revamped or completely abandoned. To determine if these claims have merit

we must ask a few questions.

1. What was the original goal of the feminist movement?

2. How has feminism changed over the years?
3. What do woman think of the current state of the feminist movement?
4. Does Modern feminism help woman and girl?

This literature review will answer the questions above by looking though feminism,

past and present, determine its impact on woman.

What was the original goal of the feminist movement?

In order to determine how feminism, effects women of the present, one must first look at

its goals and roots in the past. When studying feminism throughout history, it is common to split

the movement into distinct time periods often referred to as waves. There are three waves of

feminism. The First-wave of feminism lasted from the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries.

The movement was centered around womens demands for the removal of social barriers

arbitrarily designed by sex (Cott) and the collective realization of many different women in
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both America and Europe that As individuals and in groups they had sought diverse means and

ends to assert their share in directing the worlds public as well as private destinies. (Cott) These

nineteenth century feminists focused mainly on womens suffrage, promotion of contact, marital

rights, economic rights and property rights. (Messer-Davidow) Feminists of this time also sought

out more nebulous social change which included the spread of womans self-determination via

emancipation from structures, conventions and attitudes enforced by law and custom. (Cott)

These core ideas are what drove feminism throughout the years, and while many of these things

have been achieved through laws such as the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to

vote, it is the more amorphous concepts of womens social emancipation that can be seen in all

forms of feminism even to this day.

How has feminism changed over the years?

As stated before, when studying the history of feminism, it is common to split the

movement in to waves to better see the trends, and philosophical differences the movement

undertook as time progressed. Because the origin of feminism has already been discussed, we

can move on to the Second and Third waves of feminism.

Second-wave feminism is thought by many to have begun in the early 1960s and lasted to

the early 1980s. While First-wave feminism was based on the passing of laws to acquire tangible

rights, such as the right to vote or own land, Second-wave feminism broadened their focus to

accompany more social problems, such as domestic violence and marital rape. (Cott) It was in

this time that the feminist movement was broken into two conflicting groups. The liberal

feminists, who were mostly focused on working with left wing institutions to improve the

workplace standing of women, who at the time were restricted to woman only service jobs. The

radical feminists however, opposed the subordination of womens liberation to the left (Echols)
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and believed that relations between woman and men needed to be recast in political terms

(Echols). One of the most influential notion brought about by Second-wave feminism is the idea

of that The Personal is the Political. (Echols) Feminists of this period believed women should

deeply politicize the experience of being a woman as due to the existence of sexist power

structures that were prominent in culture and politics.

Third-wave feminism is the most current wave of the movement. This wave of feminism

began in the early 1990s as a reaction to perceived failings of the second wave. With the second

wave feminism taking care of the big political issues of its time through legislation, the third

wave focuses on changing the social landscape by using micro-politics. (Freedman) Issues of

reproductive rights, the reclaiming of derogatory terms, and rape have been the focus of the

third-wave. One of the main changes in the doctoring of modern feminism is the mass expansion

of feminism due to a focus towards representing the queer and non-white woman, farther

broadening their goals, which slowly have become non-cohesive as the focus on inivdualism

become more ingrained to feminist doctorine. (Boyd, Dorothy and Hester)

What do woman think of modern feminism.

While it cant be understated how important the first two waves of feminism where to the

woman all over the world, the validity of the third wave is one that continues to be questioned by

both woman and feminists. Some feminist call for rethinking of the articulations of popular

culture and political criticism, (Modleski) while others see the lack of a set goal and wonder

what the point is. This phenomenon can be corroborated by a survey done by the Huffington

Post, only 23 percent of woman consider themselves feminists. (Swanson) Another poll done by

Vox shows worse numbers, as only 18 percent of the participants consider themselves feminists.
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(Kliff) However, a national survey done by the Washington Post that shows that 68 percent of the

woman they surveyed were feminists. (Clement and Cai)

Seeing these very different results, I conducted a survey of my own in March at Hampton

University to ascertain for myself how woman felt about feminism. 30 female students were

asked Do you consider yourself a feminist. The results showed that out of the 30 women, 22 of

them did not consider themselves feminists. While the survey size was small and only consisted

of woman of a specific age, the poll shows 73 percent of the voting population did not consider

themselves feminists, and only 27 percent of them did. (See Figure 1)

Do you consider yourself a feminist?

Yes No

Figure 1. Survey responses to the question, Do you consider yourself a feminist?

While a true scientific survey is needed to be conclusive on the matter, majority of

surveys online show a similar pattern to the graph above. It is also important to point out that

while many people may not consider themselves feminists, the Huffington Post shows when

asked and Vox survey show that when asked if they believe that men and woman should be

social, political, and economic equals 82 percent responded they did. (Swanson) A similar

question was asked in the Vox poll, and showed similar results, with the Vox study showing 78
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percent of the non-feminists believe in social, political, legal and economic equality of the

sexes (Kliff).

Does Modern feminism help women and girls?

Feminists will readily tell you that the world need feminism now more than ever. With

the election of Donald Trump, many women are taking to the streets to protest. But looking

closely at what many feminists claim to fight for it becomes shockingly easy to dismiss them.

This isnt the fight for basic human rights that the first wave fought for, or a strive to even the

playing field, and created a less sexist and positive workplace and home that the second wave

fought for. The third wave of feminism fight invisible enemies based on perceived slights against

them. (Boyd, Dorothy and Hester)

However, despite the haphazard nature of the third wave, there are this multiple problem

in todays world unique to women and girls that are only addressed by feminists. Matters of

female reproduction, abortion rights and lack of positive representation in the media are all

battles that feminism have not yet fully won.

Conclusion

While modern feminism isnt as cohesive as first and second wave feminism, we are still

a long ways away from being a truly post-feminist society.

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Works Cited
Boyd, Susan B, Chunn E Dorothy and Lessard Hester. Reaction and resistance :
feminism, law, and social change. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007. Print.
Clement, Scott and Weiyi Cai. What Americans think about feminism today. 27
January 2016. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/feminism-
project/poll/>.
Cott, Nancy F. The Grounding of Modern Feminism. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1987. Print.
Echols, Alice. Daring to Be Bad : Radical Feminism in America 1967-1975.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989. Print.
Freedman, Estelle B. No Turning Back : The History of Feminism and the Future of
Women. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002. Print.
Kliff, Sarah. Only 18 percent of Americancs consider themselves feminists. 8 April
2015. <http://www.vox.com/2015/4/8/8372417/feminist-gender-equality-
poll>.
Messer-Davidow, Ellen. Disciplining Feminism: From Social Activism to Academic
Discourse. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2002. Print.
Modleski, Tania. Feminism Without Woman: Culture and Criticism in a "Postfeminist"
Age. New York and London: Routledge, 1991. Print.
Swanson, Emily. Poll: Few Identify As Feminists, But Most Believe In Equality Of
Sexes. 16 April 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/feminism-
poll_n_3094917.html?
fb_comment_id=182860378531192_409898912494003#f2470b0bd>.